I Came Seeking Redemption (We Live Forever - P. M. H. Atwater)

Member Name: marandina

Product:	We Live Forever - P. M. H. Atwater
Date:	11/09/06 (179 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Interesting at times

Disadvantages: Lacks genuine credibilty

There's almost a public taboo surrounding the subject of death that needs unravelling with further explanation. I find the strange unwillingness to even consider what happens when we reach the end of our lifetime a curious brick wall that hides numerous hang-ups in numerous people. It was this and a fascination with mortality and other related topics that led me to do some research on the Internet one night. With the subject starting as NDE (Near Death Experiences), I soon found myself wandering onto a page that dealt with dying and death. It was a paragraph that graphically described what it was like to actually die that led me to a link for the book "We Live Forever" by P.M.H Atwater. Out of curiosity, I ordered it from across the ”pond” via Amazon and duly read it from cover to cover.

To understand this particular book, it helps to understand who the author is. P.M.H. Atwater claims to be an authority on these subjects. Born in Idaho, the author has survived 3 near death experiences herself and it's these experiences that have driven her to research the subject over the years. The author seems to be a complex character. Having been through a marriage break up along with an abortion that resulted in one of her heart attacks and two further occasions where she is adamant that she technically died then you start to realise that this particular writer is fairly unusual. It seems even her pen name came to her in a dream lit up by shining white lights spelling out her pseudonym.

The essence of the book is to expose the myths surrounding the processes of death and dying. As well as racking up over 3000 adult and 277 child near death accounts, Atwater has developed views on everything from angels to Heaven and Hell, from Astral projections to out of body experiences. She writes with a huge amount of conviction on each topic she covers and with no small measure of metaphysics to explain some of the phenomena that she attempts to shed light on. As it’s a factual book then the text is written in the third person for the most part although some episodes are more personal and slip into the first person with Atwater either reminiscing or expounding her own personal views.

The book is not long at only 138 pages and it only took me a few hours to read. On the positive side, the subjects covered are wide and varied. In just seventeen chapters, the author talks in a surprising level of detail about free will, the soul, near death experiences and death itself to name but a few subjects covered. As you might guess from the book’s title, the theme of most of the material is very uplifting and almost evangelical. The central message contained within the book (and not made secret from the outset and so I’m not giving anything away) is that we don’t die when we die (in the traditionally accepted sense) but go onto something much more profound depending on what stage of our "layered learning" we have reached. There is plenty to support the various theories in the book but, of course, it’s one thing writing about them and another thing actually proving any of them beyond reasonable doubt. Still, Atwater has died on three occasions and lived to tell the tale and much of her revelations stems from the knowledge acquired whilst technically dead. You have to hand it to the author; her account of what happens after death is particularly poignant and is, after all, what drew me to the book in the first place. With a detailed account of eleven levels of afterlife that straddle astral planes and map a route from an aspiration to attain basic level needs to the ultimate goal of full “at-one-ment” through the eleventh level on the fourth cosmic plane. This ultimate goal seems to imply a level where we can amount to achieving God-like status although God’s omnipotent wants and desires remain as illusive as ever in Atwater’s account.

On the downside, the book has several typographical and grammatical errors that will niggle bearing in mind that the book appears to have been published professionally. For me, there’s absolutely no excuse for faux pas like the ones in this particular book. More significantly, I couldn’t help but worry as to just how many paranormal theories the writer seemed to believe in. It seems that everything from re-incarnation to the power of prayer to heal was feasible when what I wanted was a serious account of what dying and even death might be like. Whether intended or not, the book provides plenty of opportunity to buy audio- tapes, videos and other media with yet more material on the subject. Whilst I welcomed the idea of making the process of dying easier for people by listening to a comforting tape that talks about the concept of moving to a higher, spiritual resonance after death (i.e. like moving from one part of a radio bandwidth frequency to another after death), it did look for all the world like an exercise in linked merchandising whether intended or not.

With a book that purports to be factual, there is an awful lot of emotionally charged material in there. From the outset with the account of the tragic death of the two-year-old family member Myriam to the other stories of apocryphal deaths that spurred others on, Atwater writes poetically as to how this death made her pursue the knowledge she now shares with others, either through her books, seminars or other media aids that plot the path to Heaven. “I do not regret the sacrifices I made in this pursuit or what I went through to produce the books I have written. But Myriam stopped me short. She flung wide the doors of my heart and validated the songs my soul sings” Maybe that descriptive, articulate but grammatically flawed paragraph sums up the book on the whole.

"We Live Forever" was an interesting read with plenty of theological ramblings to ponder over. I'm not sure that I got exactly what I was looking for from the book and there were plenty of aspects of the author's personal life that made me a little uncomfortable with the ultimate lack of depth of the subjects covered despite the level of detail I did encounter. Basically, I would have needed to read a lot more on the subjects to have become anywhere near convinced about the truth of the author's ideas.

I would recommend this book for people looking for a greater insight through a very personal account of a difficult subject to cover but with reservations around the scientific credibilty of the material. If that appears too unfair to the author then that's simply my own view of the way the book reads. I certainly hope that we do, indeed, live forever. My head tells me otherwise.

Thanks for the read

Mara

ISBN 0-87604-492-5

R.R.P. $12.95. Available from Amazon.com

Published by A.R.E. Press

Summary: Overview of the book